Montana GOP chair asks party to reject labels, but says some Republicans are now Democrats

GREAT FALLS — Montana Republican Party Chair Art Wittich’s first Winter Kickoff event was marked by fragmentation in the GOP, even as he called on candidates and supporters to do away with labels like “RINO” or “Republican In Name Only.”

That pitch, however, was made with a sort of wink to the 300-person crowd gathered in Great Falls over the weekend to donate and greet the year's slate of Republican hopefuls. Several candidates in the room told the Montana State News Bureau that Wittich meant the Republicans who currently find themselves across the divide with party leadership should simply be considered Democrats; then Wittich said so himself.

“We’ve become an adjective party,” Wittich said in an interview at the Heritage Inn in Great Falls. “The adjectives separate us. Your idea of conservative is different than his idea of conservative. ... I want to keep this really, really simple. You’re either a Republican or you’re a Democrat.”

Those Republicans who Wittich would rather refer to as Democrats did not attend the weekend event.

They include the nine state senators who partnered with the minority party and a band of mostly moderate GOP lawmakers in the House on key votes last legislative session. The state GOP was actively trying to nix those Republicans from their ranks nearly a year ago, although several of them contend their obligations are to their districts rather than party heads.

Republicans who have seen repeated success with voters pleaded with the room to come together.

“The infighting is a distraction,” U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke said during his speech on Friday.

Infighting during the GOP’s Winter Kickoff event, which falls before the primary elections, is hardly unheard of. In 2024, Zinke’s campaign accused his primary opponent’s husband of physical assault when he tried wrestling away campaign materials away from a Zinke staffer. But the division within the party at this moment feels more entrenched. Earlier in the day, Wittich trumpeted a recent court ruling that allowed the state GOP to block those Republicans at odds with leadership from voting on party officers and policy last June. He even printed off copies of the judge’s decision for all to read.

“I think it’s happening,” Wittich continued in Saturday’s interview. “The mood today was totally different from the mood in June.”

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That dynamic was acute on Friday evening when Gov. Greg Gianforte, whose administration often worked with the bipartisan coalition, followed Wittich in the evening’s speeches and got a noticeably smaller applause.

“There are people here that are still bruised,” Wittich said the next morning. “Over time, the bruises heal. ... Part of the unity is we, the party, need to work with the governor and, frankly, he’s a part of us. A bill means nothing unless it’s signed into law.”

The two have history: Wittich previously served as Gianforte’s lawyer in a dispute about river access on Gianforte’s Bozeman property. The two sat briefly at the same table during the keynote speech, a potential signal of a truce.

Primary season prep  

The Winter Kickoff event has two main purposes: to raise money for the party and to train candidates for the campaign trail ahead, which is routed through several competitive primaries.

Much of the campaign bruises so far in contested primaries can be attributed to the Americans For Prosperity’s chapter in Montana, which has an active digital campaign against certain Republicans in several races.

“Accountability is uncomfortable but I’d rather be uncomfortable than bitch and moan,” deputy director Henry Kriegel told an 8 a.m. crowd. “That is not an option for Americans For Prosperity Montana and it should not be an option for you.”

Already AFP’s digital ads across social media have propped up the party’s preferred Republican candidates and accused coalition Republicans of “plundering” state finances. The timeline in Montana’s campaign finance laws do not require AFP Montana to start disclosing its spending or donors until March, but Facebook’s ad library for AFP Montana shows tens of thousands of impressions on its paid posts that began running in January for less than $400 each.

Kriegel said the group is working on bringing several dozen volunteers together to begin doorknocking in the weeks ahead.

“Many of you have seen our mailers and digital ads. They are hard-hitting for a purpose,” Kriegel told the crowd. “We want to capture the attention of voters. We want to honor our donors’ intent.”

After the speech Kriegel said he did not know who the donors were.

Among the races AFP has focused on is that in Senate District 9. The seat is currently held by Sen. Butch Gillespie, R-Ethridge, who is termed out and running for the House.

That leaves a seat now pursued by Rep. Llew Jones, leader of the generally moderate “Solutions Caucus” who is at odds with GOP hardliners, and second-term Rep. Zach Wirth, a soft-spoken Christian conservative from Wolf Creek.

For months, potential voters in that district have been receiving robocalls and texts criticizing Jones for his leadership of the coalition last legislative session. Those communications likewise have not fallen under campaign finance disclosure laws.

In an interview on Friday evening, Wirth said he is not coordinating with any of the groups pouring resources in against Jones. Rather, Wirth said he hopes to keep his own campaign more optimistic than the less savory tone that’s already begun occupying the airwaves above his race.

“I’m not a member of the Freedom Caucus, and I’m not a member of the Solutions Caucus,” Wirth said. “... I’m not running against Llew Jones, I’m running for Butch Gillespie’s seat.”

Jones got a big backer last year in U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican up for reelection this year. In an interview at Fort Harrison on Saturday, Daines said the rare state legislative endorsement came because of his history with Jones.

“That is more of a personal-type relationship than a political one,” Daines said. “Llew was there in the earliest days, he’s been a personal friend and so out of a personal relationship I said ‘Llew, I hope you keep serving.’ I subscribe to the Ronald Regan philosophy that if I agree with you on 80%, I call you my friend. And in politics, it's about addition, not subtraction.”

Steve Galloway, a former state representative who lost his primary in 2024, is running this cycle for Senate District 11, where politicos speculate that he may face off against Rep. Ed Buttrey, a Great Falls Republican who has been central to Medicaid expansion in Montana.

As for unity, Galloway said on Saturday that, despite Wittich’s plea to do away with labels, he believes candidates should adhere to the party platform.

“It’s a simple, basic platform. It’s not complicated,” Galloway said. “If you can’t support that, and you’re not going to support that, then you really should be rethinking how you brand yourself.”

Candidate filing opens next week.